Carson Schaake (Brian Ray/Iowa Athletics)

The Hawkeyes were led by Carson Schaake's 5-under 67 which put him atop the individual race by three shots. Nate Yankovich and Matthew Walker also continued their fine play with rounds of 69 and 71 to share fourth place individually.

Defending Champion Illinois struggled on Saturday as the Illini posted a 7-over 295 in which no player was under-par. They currently sit in third place, one shot back of Maryland and eight shots behind Iowa.

"Iowa played really well today, they wanted it more," head coach Mike Small told Fighting Illini. "Iowa had a good edge to them, and we didn't; something wasn't right with us from the start. As a team, we need to digest this, push it behind us and come back out tomorrow. We got beat today."

With one round remaining, The Hawkeyes, ranked 60th by Golfweek, will look to take only their 2nd Big 10 Title in school history.

ROUND ONE STORY

Defending champion No. 2 Illinois (279) leads the the Big Ten Championship after the first round at the Victoria National Golf Club. Illinois, who won last year by 32-strokes, carries a three shot lead into play tomorrow over Maryland (282).

Illinois is being led by individual co-leader, senior Charlie Danielson (-4) who opened with a 68. Danielson, a two-time All-Big Ten first teamer birdied five holes and didn't bogey a hole until the closing 18th hole.

Overall the Illini have four players in the top-15. Freshman Edoardo Lipparelli (-3) is T3, senior Thomas Detry (-2) is T6 and sophomore Dylan Meyer (E) is T15.

"We had some depth today," Illinois head coach Mike Small said about his teams day one effort. "I thought that the tough holes gave us some problems, but we played okay on those. For the most part, we really attacked the middle part of the golf course, which is what we needed to do today. We will start over again tomorrow and create our body of work. Every shot is a new shot. We have to go out and play our game and do what we do."

Maryland sophomore Joe Brooks (-4) also carded a 68 in the first round to tie for the lead with Daniels. Like Daniels, Brooks had five birdies and one bogey during his opening 18-holes.

Rounding out the team top-5 standings are Iowa (285) in third while Michigan State (291) and Purdue (291) are tied for fourth.

-Illinois athletics contributed to this story